This invention relates in general to pivotal joints and in particular to a new and useful ball and socket joint having an elastic socket contained in the casing accommodating the ball head of a stud member which has a top end portion having a rim which extends obliquely and upwardly toward the end which is enclosed under biasing pressure by a cover having a rim which extends obliquely upwardly and is held in place by a flange of the casing.
A similar ball and socket joint is shown and described in German AS No. 10 14 441, only, in this prior art design, the biasing load is transmitted by means of a helical spring clamped between the cover and a disc, to an annular body or a socket being in direct surface contact with the disc. The rim of the cover extends in the cover plane parallel to the equatorial plane of the spherical head and engages in a circumferential groove of a cylindrical recess of the casing, where it is retained by a flange which thus must take up the load bearing in the axial direction of the ball stud. A central chamber of the cover merely provides for a clearance permitting free movements of the spherical head in the carrow casing. This prior art further provides a circular protrusion on the inside of the cover serving the purpose of centering either a helical spring or an inner ring for biasing the socket.